BEN Fisher became St Helens Sutton AC's first area representative for a number of years when he represented the Northern Counties in the Inter-area under-20s match at Ipswich.

And he crowned that achievement by winning the javelin with a new personal best performance and new club record throw of 59.13 metres.

Meanwhile, senior club members have been taking part in road races. Running in the Birchwood 10k event at Warrington, Andy Boyack finished in 41 min 58 secs and Julia Eccleston ran 44 min 9 secs, almost nine minutes faster than her time of two years ago.

Six athletes took the longer journey to the Lake District to take part in the very testing Great Langdale half-marathon with two coming away with prizes.

Cecilia Fitzsimons, back in competition, won the over-55 years ladies prize with her time of 2 hrs 9 min 35 secs, and Dot Fairhurst won the over-60 years ladies prize, running 2 hrs 20 min 44 secs. Ritchie Bradshaw was the club's only male competitor and he ran 1 hr 57 min 21.

Pam Appleton and Louise Casey both ran 2 hrs 13 min 57 secs, with Pam being placed one position in front of Louise. And Jean Dearing ran a courageous 2 hrs 47 min 52 secs.

St Helens Sutton AC members are reminded that the club's annual meeting takes place at the Bull and Dog on Monday, September 6, starting at 7.30pm.

A TEAM from St Helens Striders made the journey to North West Wales to take up the challenge in the famous 'Race the Train' event in Tywyn, Gwynedd at the weekend.

The runners race the famous Tallyn steam train across 14.3 miles of hilly, muddy Welsh countryside while cheered on by spectators travelling on the train.

Brian Middleton and Les Abbot finished close to each other in just over two hours, while Brian Banawich, Dawn Roberts and Tom Houghton clocked around 2 hrs 20.

A number of Striders are now training for autumn marathons in Spain, New York, Amsterdam and Snowdonia. Anyone wanting to join Striders can contact Les on 01744 23160 or Brian on 29536.